The surface paint finishes of new vehicles are subject to a variety of injuries both during the assembly process and during transportation from the assembly plant to retail locations. These finishes are especially prone to damage in the first months following manufacture because the paint has not had sufficient time to cure. Typical sources of damage include acid rain, bird droppings, and "rail dust", a cloud of hard, abrasive particles which rises from a rail bed as a train passes over the rails. Rail dust is an especially difficult problem for car manufacturers as many cars are transported from assembly plants or dockyards to retail markets by rail. The damage inflicted on the vehicle's surface finish during transit can be quite severe, even requiring shipment back to the assembly plant for complete repainting.
In addition to new vehicles, other products are also subjected to abrasive and deleterious conditions during transit. For instance, storm windows and other glass products must be specially protected to avoid scratching and marring during road and rail transit. Deck cargo is also susceptible to surface damage caused by salt water and other factors. Further, vehicle surfaces are often damaged by environmental factors during normal driving. For example, train locomotive exteriors can be damaged by the same factors that impact on the vehicles they are transporting. Even typical city and country driving can quickly damage car, bus, truck, etc. finishes.
Various solutions have been attempted to protect the exposed surfaces of vehicles during the manufacturing and transportation. Physical protection (e.g., covering the vehicle with plastic or canvas) is effective, but it is labor intensive and therefore prohibitively expensive for mass shipments or typical driving. Further, the materials used for physical protection also create solid waste problems as they are not readily reusable. Chemical methods have also been proposed, but to-date these methods have found limited use because of their difficult application to, and removal from, the vehicle's surface. Also, traditional chemical methods suffer from high cost and the health and environmental dangers posed by solvent-based solutions and coatings. Especially important in chemical protective techniques is the ability to remove the chemical protective coating with water in view of the ever increasing regulation of solvent use in the workplace and the dangers solvent may pose to the vehicle's surface.
It is therefore clear that a method of protecting surfaces is needed which allows for easy, inexpensive, and safe application and removal.